Plato maintained throughout his career that the characterization of Socrates as a sophist and a corrupting influence on Athenian youth was unfounded. However, he struggled to develop a principled explanation of the differences between what Socrates and the sophists did. Plato's challenge was to establish not only that they were different from each other but also that Socrates' practice was more admirable. I examine Plato's approach to this challenge and evaluate his success in meeting it.; Among the "early" dialogues, the Gorgias is most forceful in its presentation and defense of the difference between Socratic elenchus and sophistic practice. These arguments in the Gorgias turn on Plato's construal of the differences between t3&d12;cn ai (technai, crafts) and 3 ,mp3i ri&d12;ai (empeiriai, knacks). Crucial to the distinction between crafts and knacks is the epistemically privileged position of the craftsman: he understands his practice to such an extent that he is able to explain in sufficiently general terms how the steps definitive of his practice reliably lead to the good at which he aims. Although Socrates in this dialogue speaks in supremely confident terms about what his practice of elenchus can achieve, I find that his assertions on this score are unwarranted. I show that Socratic methodological ignorance undercuts his claims to practice a craft.; In the second half of the dissertation, I argue that Socrates' account in the Theaetetus of his practice as a form of midwifery overcomes the problems with his position as it is presented in the Gorgias. Here, Socrates provides the sort of account of his practice required by the Gorgias's concept of a craft. In particular, he is shown to understand the psychological effects of his use of elenctic arguments. I argue that this account is grounded on a thoroughly rational foundation, given a plausible understanding of Socratic piety. Since there are excellent reasons for reading these two dialogues together, we can plausibly view the Theaetetus as solving the problem to which the Gorgias pointed, namely, that of the classification and defense of Socrates' practice of elenchus as a craft.
展开▼
